DOE Lab Research Provides New Understanding of Inner Workings of Lithium-ion Battery Technology

Thanks to an ECW reader for letting me know about a news release from the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory provides some interesting information about research that has been done into the inner workings of lithium-ion batteries. New technology has allowed researchers to examine what is going on in these batteries on the nano scale, and has revealed information that was unavailable previously. The researchers believe that new information could lead to better battery technology in the future.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

“Previously, researchers thought that lithium iron phosphate was a one-dimensional conductor, meaning lithium ions are only able to travel in one direction through the bulk of the material, like salmon swimming upstream.

“But while sifting through their data, the researchers noticed that lithium was moving in a completely different direction on the surface of the material than one would expect based on previous models. It was as if someone had tossed a leaf onto the surface of the stream and discovered that the water was flowing in a completely different direction than the swimming salmon.

They worked with Saiful Islam, a chemistry professor at the University of Bath, UK, to develop computer models and simulations of the system. Those revealed that lithium ions moved in two additional directions on the surface of the material, making lithium iron phosphate a three-dimensional conductor.”

Maybe the ‘popcorn effect’ mentioned in the article — where lithium rearranges itself inside the battery and causes failure — can help explain some of the fires that have occurred in some of these batteries. Possibly there is also some relevance to LENR effects in which lithium is one of the materials involved.